Israeli prosecutor drops charges against settler who was filmed firing at a Palestinian family

Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

Tuesday June 09, 2009 02:21 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agecnies

The Israeli Prosecution stated Monday that it is dropping all charges against an extremist Israeli settler, who shot two Palestinians at close range during an evacuation of an illegal settlement outpost in December of 2008. The shooting was captured on tape.

The extremist settler, Ze'ev Braude, 51, is from the Keryat Arba’ illegal settlement in Hebron.

Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that the settler turned himself in to the Israeli police last week after he knew that he was caught on film by an activist of the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem.

He was caught on film opening fire at Palestinians at short range, wounding two.

He attacked the Palestinian family while the Israeli army was evacuating an illegal settlement outpost in Hebron; he shouted at the family to get in their homes and opened fire at them.

Haaretz stated that according to the indictment, Braude struck Hosni Matriya, 44, and aimed his gun at him. He then pushed the father of Hosni, Abdul-Hai, 67, and when other family members tried to push the settler away from their property, he opened fire at them and wounded Hosni in the chest.

One of the rounds fired by the settler passed close to a Palestinian man’s head, and another round hit Abdul-Hai in the arm.

The residents managed to stop Braude from firing more rounds and held him until other settlers of the Keryat Arba’ settlement took him away.

The prosecution admitted that Braude initiated the attack and attacked the house of Abul-Hai, and that he was acting violently, yet all charged against him were dropped for “security reasons”.

One of the relatives of the injured Palestinian man told Haaretz correspondent that the Israeli decision shows the extent of racism in Israel and its justice system.

He demanded an independent investigation into the incident.

The charges were dropped when Braude asked the court to grant him access to “secret files” so he could use them fto defend himself in court. The prosecution claimed that granting access to such materials to be presented during the court could harm “the states’ security”.

The judge, Elyakim Rubenstein, decided that the settler has the right to see those files, but because they are classified, the court decided to drop all charges against him.

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